Future of Children and Corporal Punishment

We are the future. Children are the future. The healthy development of children is essential for well-being as well as crucial for society. After all, the children of today are the future of tomorrow. The promotion of children’s well-being and growth is crucial and should be taken as a first priority. If there is anything that infringes on this calm development of growth, it is corporal punishment. Corporal punishment refers to a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain on a child. It is a common assumption that it is a thing of the past and not occurring as often, which is far from the truth. Unicef, using data from 62 different countries, estimated that four in five children are subjected to corporal punishment from their parents or other caregivers. It still remains legal and permitted in many countries. Unicef also further reported, “17% of adolescents worldwide have experienced corporal punishment either in school or at home.” Nineteen U.S. states in America still consider it legal for school personnel to “paddle” children. To find that corporal punishment is still legal in some parts of the United States is shocking. The fact that the U.S. is not completely free of this in its public schools when considered a highly developed nation which protects its citizens is highly ironic and concerning. Along with parts of America, sixty nine other countries still allow corporal punishment in its schools including some Australian states and a number of countries in Africa and Asia. A meta-analysis conducted by professor Elizabeth Gershoff, who specializes in human development and family sciences found that there was, “a strong negative association of corporal punishment with the parent-child relationship and mental health in childhood and adulthood.” Additionally the study revealed that, “children who experienced corporal punishment reported higher levels of aggression and antisocial behavior in childhood and adulthood” and additionally “that these children were more likely to become a perpetrator of physical abuse on their own child or spouse as an adult.” (Gershoff, 2002) Inflicting corporate punishment on a child not only hurts the child by causing physical and emotional pain, but it some cases, the child may think it is ok to inflict pain on others as adults, on their own kids, thus becoming a vicious cycle. This is an extremely dangerous idea to enter the child’s mind, to think that physical punishments or physical violence is normal and ok, and that even inflicting it on others as well is fine when they are still children or as adults. It also leads to degraded mental and physical health and leads to everlasting trauma as they grow to be adults. An additional study revealed, “African American and Hispanic mothers who used spanking had children decreases in internalizing problems in the short-term but over the long-term spanking was associated with greater internalizing and externalizing problems for both groups of children.” This finding reveals that while physical punishment may seem like a solution in short term, in the long run it only leads to more negative results towards the child’s behavior and mental health. Physical violence is never necessary and should never be used for “punishments” which should be a morale parents should preach and practice instead of inflicting. Communication and other methods are widely available; physical force should never be present in the upbringing of a child nevertheless even the idea. People and past generations have seen it as a way to discipline a child, majority of the times the only way, when it should be seen for its reality and brutality and its negative impacts on mental and physical health. It is this mentality that highly requires change and be erased completely.